Tatiana and Olga 2010

Thursday, September 25, 2014

When I was battling the Tsar's tunic for a year I was also
improving Nicholas's portrait all during that time. Which I think is one of the reasons the
tunic battle dragged on . However though out all that, Alexi stood at attention, as good as gold with a cheeky
grin, and ready to go.

Finally the Tsar is great, the background is great ,
the video is ready...now Alexis is giving me fits

He was fine for that year, but Nicholas has turned out so well, I deemed Alexis needed tweaking...opps now I'm in trouble

Portraits
are such delicate things really ... a false stroke and a likeness is
lost. When I came to, I had retained only an eye and his mouth... his
jaw and sides were a mess

Portrait painting on a canvas is not
digital. Sadly there's no reset back to where you started...if only!
But then I'd still have the problem that Alexis was no longer up to
his father level .

One needs the gall of a riverboat gambler to
cash in on an OK portrait in the hope to gain a better one ...because
there's no guarantee whatsoever you will get it . It could easily be
snake eyes . One can only press on. Paint for your life,
paint for shore.

The good news is Alexis coming around and he will better than before

Embrace
the trouble...it does free one up once the okay is gone, to try
different things ..But there has been times when I wish I could hit that
reset button!

On to Haworth!

In October my husband and I will be traveling to Haworth!

Charlotte
said Haworth was difficult to get to and one had to have a good reason
to travel there ...and guess what? It's still no snap . We
will be taking two planes and a cab!

I'm swooning and can't wait .

When
you have an intense interest like The Brontes or Romanovs, you place
a great deal of attention on the people , of course...insight and thinking
etc, But you are not use to having so much come back at you from
them..What I mean is being at their home and walking the same moors,
they will become far more real than ever before. Of course your mind
knew they actually lived ...but it's the totality of the OMG they were
real found in their actual settings that will hit one.

It will be astounding just to walk though the Parsonage door.

I'm packing smelling salts and I told my husband if I faint, don't be so foolish as to try to catch me, just get out of the way lol

Being in Haworth can't help but impact my book and partly that's why we are going. The book goes on, I'm looking forward to weaving together all I have written and will write . Just like with the painting, it's a matter of digging deep to find the gold

Rev Patrick Bronte's Novel

Many people do not know Papa Bronte wrote the first Bronte novel in 1818...

It's called

The Maid of Killarney; or, Albion and Flora:

a modern tale; in which are interwoven some cursory remarks on religion and politics.

It's not Jane Eyre or Wurthing Heights...but it's not too bad at all. It reads like a Bronte novel somewhat. The places where the emotions are calm. For Rev Bronte was eager to prove the Irish can be calm and clean and refute the usual stereotypes prevalent at this time .

We always hear how the Parsonage was spotless., The wish for cleanliness was not the only reason why. They were quite sensitive to being thought "typically " Irish . Charlotte wrote from her honeymoon how she glad not to find the Irish " dirt " she was raised to fear .

The
Bronte sisters genius is still a wonder , but one cannot say their
writing abilities came completely from no where It only seems so
when the influence of their father and their Irish blood is purposely
obscured...which it certainly was for many years

No longer
is the question how and where did the Bronte children learned to write
as they did ?The question also is : Where did Papa learn ?

There was a strong story telling tradition within the family and apparently they were literate for generations. Either Patrick's
grandfather or his great uncle may have been involved in setting down
Irish myths among a group of scribes doing this earlier in the 18th
century. The family fell into poverty around Patrick's father's time and and so this history was disguised.

It takes nothing away from Rev Bronte's achievements to learn reading was in the family even before he was . Patrick makes reference
to this history with a few lines in his autobiographical letter he sent to Mrs. Gaskell when
she was writing Charlotte's life . But that part was edited out .